Pedroia Shows Some Pop

Dustin Pedroia finally broke out of a homer drought last night. The drought lasted 48 games dating back to last year, according to the Herald. Pedroia's at bat characterized everything he is about. He saw 10 pitches during the at bat, and fouled off 3 straight pitches after working the count full before he launched the ball into the Monster seats. His message post-game was simple according to the Herald - "I'm not a home run hitter." And he's really not. His game is grinding out at bats and finding ways to get hits. So far, his numbers reflect that. According to the Herald, he's hitting at .306 with a .403 on base percentage. That right there sums up Pedroia's game. But hopefully, 1 will lead to more, but as long as he continues to get hits and get on base, I'll be happy. We don't necessarily need power. We need to win games. That's the bottom line, and Pedroia has been helping us win in a big way. Probably even more important than the homer itself was the timing of the homer. At the time, it gave us a lead in the bottom of the 8th, at least until Hanrahan blew the lead in the top of the 9th, but anytime a player can come up late in a game and hit a homer in a tie game, it is huge. No doubt about it.

I'll close by saying this - we need to be able to win these extra inning games, because the season is long and we'll face more games like this. And we'll need people like Pedroia who can grind out at bats and get on base. And we'll need someone to come up big with a walk off, like Stephen Drew last night. If we want to be successful, we'll need to win the majority of these extra inning games.

As always, tweet me @ConorJF1016 or leave a comment below.